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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24104026">The Parting Glass</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verdantsolstice/pseuds/Verdantsolstice'>Verdantsolstice</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, HEA, Post TROS, TROS Fix IT, extending the ending</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:14:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24104026</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verdantsolstice/pseuds/Verdantsolstice</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben inhaled and opened his eyes. He half expected to see Rey leaning over him. That maybe she’d brought him back - that somehow they’d get stuck a loop of lifeforce transference, both refusing to give the other up. But no, she wasn’t here. He wasn’t sure where here even was. </p><p>------<br/>yet another log on the tros fix-it fire. Not an overhaul/complete redo of the end, just adds to it - the scenes we didn't see</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>not the first fic i've ever written but the first fic i've posted (i'm nervous 😬)</p><p>its been five months and everyone has their own tros fix it - i know i've got more than one. the final episode of the clone wars actually got me a little ways out of my star wars slump. if you haven't watched the series, I recommend it</p><p>find me on twitter and tumblr as alderaanbby</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ben inhaled and opened his eyes. He half expected to see Rey leaning over him. That maybe she’d brought him back - that somehow they’d get stuck a loop of lifeforce transference, both refusing to give the other up. But no, she wasn’t here. He wasn’t sure where here even was.</p><p>Wherever he was, it was dark, and definitely not the ruined temple on Exogol. Gingerly, Ben moved to get up, waiting for his body to protest at the punishment it had just received. But he didn’t feel any pain. He tested out his leg, that had surely been broken a few minutes ago, and though it didn’t feel strong, he could put weight on it.</p><p>What is this? He looked around at his new surroundings, but there wasn’t much to see. It was dark, beyond dark. It was nothing. Cautiously, Ben reached out with the Force. He could feel it around him but it felt different. And what was worse, he couldn’t find Rey. Ben swallowed and worked his jaw. He’d gladly given his life for Rey, she was his equal in the Force, in everything, and he’d do it again. Every time. But he hadn’t expected death to look like this, this empty nothing. Maybe it was childish, but he thought he’d be reunited with his parents. That the Force would bring them together in death as they weren’t in life.</p><p>Ben took a deep breath and was about to just pick a direction and start walking when a soft glow of life came from his left. He spun and reached for his lightsaber - which of course was no longer in his possession. Reaching again for the Force, Ben watched as the glow became the shape of a person. A man.</p><p>“I wonder if I’m the only jedi who has a grandson.” The man was a few years younger than Ben, and he was wearing a small smile. “Mine is from a lightsaber too. And it was a woman who was wielding it.” The man gestured to the scar over his eye.</p><p>“Vader,” Ben breathed, “You’re Anakin Skywalker,” he said, louder this time.</p><p>“I’m sorry we had to meet like this, Ben. Palpatine took everything from me. I thought I had saved my children from him, and I’m sorry my grandchild had to face that kind of evil. It wasn’t meant to happen like this. You did well, Ben. We Skywalker men may take a while to get there, it appears genetic, I’m afraid. You and Rey saved the galaxy.”</p><p>“Rey faced him alone, in the end. I didn’t get there fast enough. I should have been there.”</p><p>“You did everything you could. She faced down the entire power of the Sith, and she destroyed it. And you gave her strength when she needed it.”</p><p>“I couldn’t let her go. When our bond severed that last time, it felt like…” Ben swallowed, he couldn’t even put a name to the terror he felt in that moment. “The galaxy still needs her, and she deserves all of it. She still wanted so much, there was so much she wanted to do. I couldn’t let her die.” Ben could feel Rey’s lifeless form in his arms, she had been so cold, her constant presence suddenly wiped out. He shivered and thought instead of how it felt when she started breathing again. When she kissed him.</p><p>“We all saw, giving life the way you did, it doesn’t happen often, Ben. Force healing is one thing, but to choose to bring Rey back at the cost of your own life...You no longer feel the conflict of the light and dark side, do you?”</p><p>“No,” Ben shook his head. “When Rey left me on the ruins of the Death Star, I knew my path lay only with her. Regardless of what it meant for my life.”</p><p>“It took me a long time to learn that lesson. And Luke was the one to show me the way. Our family has the unfortunate habit of carrying the mantle of the universe, and paying for it with our lives,” a sadness passed over Anakin’s face. Ben had tried to learn more about his grandfather by searching his castle at Mustafar, and what he pieced together was as much of a tragedy as his own story. Ben had so many questions.</p><p>Anakin must have seen those questions rising in Ben’s throat, because he smiled. “Why don’t we start with “what is this place?””</p><p>“I didn’t think death would look like this,” Ben said. “I thought there’d be more to it.”</p><p>“Oh there is, but you’re not quite there yet.”</p><p>“What? But I died. I felt it, I left. I can’t feel Rey anymore, I can’t feel anything.”</p><p>Anakin raised a hand and the space around them began to light. Or at least, part of the floor did. They were standing on a pathway. Ben looked behind him, it stretched on beyond the horizon. He turned back to Anakin and saw the lit path extended in the same way. He didn’t know where each direction led, but he sensed he was about to make a very important decision.</p><p>“This place is known as The World Between Worlds. Its a lot bigger than what you see here, but, for now, this part is open to you.”</p><p>Ben furrowed his brow, “The World Between Worlds?” He’d never come across anything like this in all of his study of the Force.</p><p>“Master Yoda or Master Qui-Gon would probably be better at explaining, but I wanted to meet you,” Anakin smiled at him. “Once in a while, the Force gives us an opportunity, it shows us another way. It saved my padawan once.”</p><p>“From what?”</p><p>“From me.”</p><p>Ben watched as Anakin remembered a long-ago battle. Both of them knew what it was to fall to the darkside at the cost of the people they loved.</p><p>“You became One with the Force, Ben. And now you’ve been given a choice. Follow the Force that way, and you might find your new future,” Anakin nodded to the path extending behind Ben. “Or you could come with me, and be at peace. Your family is waiting for you.”</p><p>Your family is waiting for you. Ben felt that Anakin was applying that phrase to both directions. He looked behind him. That path would be harder, he knew. He could return to Rey, but her friends probably wouldn’t accept him. He had so much to atone for. He couldn’t ask her to stay with an outcast, she deserved more than that. He once told her she needed a teacher, but she didn’t even need that anymore. She would find her place in the galaxy. He didn’t have much to offer her.</p><p>Or he could give in to the Force. See his parents, maybe Luke someday. Meet Padmé. He saw a holo of her once, he thought maybe they had the same eyes. It would be so easy to give in now. He was tired. Tired of fighting, fighting the light, the dark, himself. Maybe it was time.</p><p>“Only you can make this decision Ben. And there are no wrong answers, here. Whatever way you choose, the Force will be with you.”</p><p>Ben studied his grandfather, the young General who’d been declared dead during the Clone Wars, only to resurface as Lord Vader. Who’d lost himself to the dark side, only to find the light in time to save his children, and the galaxy. Ben had spent so many years trying to find Vader in the Force, he really should have been searching for Anakin.</p><p>Anakin saw Ben make his decision and smiled. “You might try Tattoine. But Naboo has a much more romantic atmosphere. The Lake Country, especially.”</p><p>Ben felt his cheeks warm, and hoped it didn’t show too much.</p><p>Anakin laughed, “I never got the chance to tease my own kids, forgive me.”</p><p>So much for not showing. “I’m not ready to give her up.”</p><p>“She wasn’t ready to give you up either. You disappeared before she got the chance to tell you herself.”</p><p>“My parents…”</p><p>“They’ll understand.”</p><p>Ben nodded, he knew they would. Even so, he wished he could tell them himself.</p><p>“We’ll be with you, always, kid.”</p><p>“Thank you, Anakin,” Ben looked at his grandfather one last time before turning.</p><p>“Oh yeah, tell Rey she should rewire the compressor in the Falcon’s hyperdrive. The motivator can handle twice the load its taking now, it’ll make starting the jump much faster.”</p><p>Ben’s mouth dropped open, but Anakin just shrugged. “Flying runs in the family. May the Force be with you Ben.”</p><p>Ben smiled and turned to walk down his new path. Just like before, he knew it would lead him to Rey, and that was all he needed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rey watched helplessly as Ben disappeared. She’d finally gotten to take his hand, and now he was gone. A lump formed in her throat. He’d saved her, he’d brought her back, and now he was gone. The hole left where their bond had been confirmed his loss. The bond had been an unwelcome intrusion when it opened, and now she felt broken without it.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Rey watched helplessly as Ben disappeared. She’d finally gotten to take his hand, and now he was gone. A lump formed in her throat. He’d saved her, he’d brought her back, and now he was gone. The hole left where their bond had been confirmed his loss. The bond had been an unwelcome intrusion when it opened, and now she felt broken without it. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The ground trembled as the temple continued to collapse. She had to leave. Rey swallowed hard and looked back at the space where Ben had been. Where she’d come back to life and kissed him. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Goodbye Ben Solo. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Rey blinked away her tears, there was no time for that now. Rey picked up the two lightsabers, and as quick as her sore body could carry her, made her way back to the X-Wing. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The sight of Ben’s ship almost crumbled her resolve; but Exogol was breaking around her, she had to go. She had to get back to the Resistance base, hopefully her friends made it through the battle. She wasn’t sure she could bear to lose anyone else today. She looked over the carnage as her ship rose - there would be countless casualties, Resistance and First Order alike. She hoped this was the final battle, the final war. Leia probably felt the same as her first war ended. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Leia, Han, Luke, Ben</span>
  </em>
  <span> all of them gone. Rey wiped the tears from her cheeks as she punched in the flightpath back to the base. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She landed amongst the celebrations. She caught sight of Rose and Kaydel standing with Maz, but everything fell away when she saw Finn. He ran towards her, followed by Poe (they were always together now). She crashed into her friends, relieved and overwhelmed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>**</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The celebrations went on for a week. All through the galaxy, people were rising up against the First Order. Rebuilding the world would be slow, and mind-numbingly frustrating, but maybe this time it would work. Maybe this time there would be no shadow of the Empire. Rey helped where she could, but she knew nothing about government. She may have power in the Force, but in some ways she was still just a girl from a junkyard planet. A girl who’d lost her mentor and what felt like half of her soul in the same day. The galaxy mourned Leia- princess, general, senator, inspiration. But Rey was alone in her grief over Ben- the boy who’d saved her, who’d known her in a way no one else did. Rey let her mind drift back to Exogol, to their moment of peace, of pure happiness. But it had been taken from her, he’d been taken from her. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Rey? Hello?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hm? Sorry, what?” Rey started when Finn poked her arm.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Poe asked what you thought about using Chandrila as the new base of operations,” Finn raised his eyebrows at her. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Suddenly, Rey became aware that everyone was looking at her. She had been included in this council, she knew, only because she was “the last jedi”, but she couldn’t be useful here. Something was calling her away.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I trust you all to make the right decision, excuse me, there's something I must do,” Rey stood from the table before anyone could protest. “Generals.” She nodded to Finn and Poe, then left. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>A frantic beeping followed her through the corridor. “I have to go, BB-8. There's something I have to do. Go back to Poe, he’s going to need all the help he can get.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Another series of beeps had her rolling her eyes. “Oh he did, did he? Fine, suit yourself. I’ll meet you on the Falcon.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>BB-8 chirped happily and rolled off to the ship. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Rey went to find Chewie. He’d told her that after 230 years, he was ready to retire, and the ship was hers, as long as she promised to take care of her. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It took her a week to find a new kyber crystal. She needed her own saber. She’d destroyed the emperor with Luke and Leia’s sabers, but neither of them felt right in her hands anymore.  It took another week to build her lightsaber, along with a few small burns on her fingers. She took apart her staff and used the pieces to create a new hilt. The final product wasn’t as elegant as the Skywalker blade or as beautiful as Leia’s, but she loved it. It felt like </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> in a way the other blades didn’t. She cheered when it powered up successfully, startling BB-8 who’d been in sleep mode. In her excitement, she’d reached for the bond, wanting to tell Ben. But of course, she came up empty. He was gone. She let herself be sad for a moment, imagining the smile he would have given her, then rubbed her eyes before the tears could fall. It had been nearly a month, but the space where their bond had been still felt raw. Ignoring the void was her only way of coping..</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Taking a deep breath, she went to the cockpit. Now that she had a saber of her own, she had to take care of Luke and Leia’s. It was time to bury the past. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>*</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Rey felt an echo in the Force as she let Tattoine take hold of the lightsabers. Part of her story had started here, part of Ben’s story had started here. And now it was up to her to find out where her story would lead next. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She’d given the old woman the name of Rey Skywalker, she wasn’t sure why; but after finding out she was related to the Emperor, it had felt nice to honor the Skywalkers in some way. Leia and Luke smiled at her before retreating back into the Force. Rey turned to watch the sunset, she’d started this journey alone on a desert planet with a curious droid at her side, and she guessed that this was an okay way to end it.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Rey Skywalker? I think you can do better than that.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Rey’s heart stopped. She wasn’t ready for this. But she also couldn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> look. Rey turned to find Ben Solo leaning against the Falcon’s ramp. He looked so solid, so real. Not in the bluish hue she’d come to associate with Force ghosts. Maybe he wasn’t a ghost, maybe he was a hallucination. Afterall, she hadn’t seen him since he died. She was all too familiar with the tricks that the desert could play on a person.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you have a better suggestion?” she asked tiredly. If her brain insisted on conjuring a mirage, it might as well be helpful. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>For the first time in weeks, Rey felt the Force surge through her in a way it hadn’t since….</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>How about Rey Solo?</span>
  </em>
  <span> He whispered in her mind. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Ben?” Rey’s hands started to shake, she almost didn’t dare hope. “How?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Apparently the Force decided it wasn’t finished with me, yet.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Rey launched herself at him, hoping against all hope that he was real, that she wasn’t about to collide very painfully with the Falcon. But, of course, he caught her. Just as he’d caught her on Exogol. Ben was here, he was real, he was alive. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading! 🖤<br/>I've read so many fics, but this is the first one I've shared and I really appreciate you taking the time to read it</p>
<p>find me on twitter and tumblr as alderaanbby</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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